CLARKSVILLE, TN − Austin Peay State University’s Zone 3 Visiting Writers’ Series will host a free public event with McArthur Genius Fellow Kiese Laymon at 7 p.m. on Thursday, March 20, in Mabry Concert Hall. The nationally acclaimed author will read from and discuss his life and work, followed by a Q&A session and book signing.
This event was made possible through a collaboration between the Center of Excellence for the Creative Arts, the Department of History and Philosophy’s Betty Joe Wallace Memorial Lecture, APSU’s Women’s and Gender Studies and African American Studies programs, and the Office of Academic Affairs.
“Kiese’s work is so important to the mission of the Betty Joe Wallace Memorial Lecture, which is to celebrate the lived experiences of African Americans, women, and others who find themselves in the margins of American society and history,” said Dr. Paula White, the coordinator of APSU’s Women’s and Gender Studies program. “I am delighted Kiese will share his story with our students and campus community.”
Laymon is a Black southern writer from Jackson, Mississippi and the author of Long Division (the winner of the 2022 NAACP Image Award for Fiction), the essay collection How to Slowly Kill Yourself and Others in America (a New York Times notable book of 2021), and the bestseller Heavy: An American Memoir.
Heavy won the Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Nonfiction, the Christopher Isherwood Prize for Autobiographical Prose, the Barnes and Noble Discover Award, the Austen Riggs Erikson Prize for Excellence in Mental Health Media, and was named one of the 50 Best Memoirs of the Past 50 Years by The New York Times. The audiobook, read by the author, was named the Audible 2018 Audiobook of the Year. Laymon is currently the Libbie Shearn Moody Professor of English and Creative Writing at Rice University in San Antonio, Texas. Learn more about his life and work here.
“I think Betty Joe Wallace would love to hear (Laymon’s) story of growing up African American in Mississippi in the 1970s and 1980s,” said Dr. Michele Butts, professor of history. “She introduced African American history at Austin Peay in the 1960s and 1970s, because she believed African American stories and contributions needed to be heard and valued. She would appreciate his journey and pioneering spirit.”